Comfortably Numb

Chak de India!

2010-02-28T18:27:00.017+01:00

So Team India wins their inaugural match at the World Cup!

Great start to the tournament. Hope this continues, and who knows - we might have a good shot at winning it all. Of course we were the mighty champs a few decades ago till the Aussies and the Dutch came over and told Pillai n Pargat to go fly a kite. The last time we won the World Cup was in 1975, and since then most laurels, including Olympics (last was in 1980) have eluded us Indians.

Many folks have reason to believe that Kapil Dev and his underdog triumphants in 1983 were responsible for taking away the limelight and shifting the national obsession to Cricket. Not that we are complaining - how else would we find another God called Sachin. But the point is - slowly and steadily, since the 80s, hockey didnt even matter any more. It was just a piece of general knowledge that kids mugged up in school - regarding Hockey being the national sport of India. That was it ! Seriously, guys - how many of us know about Dhyanchand any more? Not the new generation born in the 90's surely.

But I digress. This first win is what counts, and is a great performance by the team. Specially after all the disputes between the team and the federation that happened all these weeks earlier.

But today, I couldn't help but remember this incident a few months back when I was in Pune. The Indian team was at the Balewadi Sports Complex at the city-outskirts, and training under the Spanish coach Brasa. Barely 4-5 kms away from our place, it felt nice reading about them in the papers - Balewadi has surely great facilities. But here's the thing - the team were served Chivda for breakfast!! I'll say this again, lest you missed it - yes, they were served Chivda! And it was a small piece of dispute covered in the local papers.

Now I personally have nothing against the humble Chivda. In fact as a self-respecting (and expanding) Gujju foodie, I place it highly on my light snacking lists. Laxminarayan chivda from Pune is one of the great delicacies that go divinely with ginger tea. But chivda for hockey players? Really? I mean imagine our team fed on a 'healthy' diet of chivdas locking horns with a big, muscular group of 11 Aussies stuffed with Eggs, bacon, milk, sausages and fruits. Sorry, but the match was lost at the ~~dining~~ breakfast table itself!
A piece of the story here.

This gives an idea about how a national team is treated if they happen to be playing any sport other than Cricket.

But well, the 1st win is great, especially against Pak, so its time to rejoice! Bring on the chivda,.. err Champagne (German Sekt, if you please) and pray that this great form continues for few more weeks for the boys. In absence of live-TV, I shall try to remain connected through youtube highlights, if I can find them.

PS: Overheard from a twitter feed, this: 4-1 win to India confirmed! Unless Pak government denies that these 11 players are Pak citizens. Lol. (via @rameshsrivats)

While I was away...

2010-02-07T11:46:00.006+01:00

... here's what the world was searching for...

And must say we Indians need some image building exercise in the world..

But hey, before you say either 'Holy shit' or 'We are like this only', the Western world is not spared from convenient stereotyping either. Here's what the world thinks about Les Français!

(Hopefully more would come up in this dormant blog, and it would not be these snippets from the web, but actual words penned down by yours truly)

Flashes of delight in gastronomy

2009-06-14T11:36:00.021+02:00

I love food.
So does our entire extended family. Ya, I know what you thinking - who in the world would not like eating? But saying that I was a gluttonous omni-voracious foodoholic would be quite close to describing the real me. Though as I reached my late 20s (sigh!), my gastronomic habits have become more sober, much closer to normal, civilized people.
Still remember the days in college when we used to devour our food like there was no tomorrow. And then our gang of hungry souls was solely responsible for putting out of business at least two all-you-can-eat food joints. God bless them.

Speaking of which, it brings me to last month which was a complete delight for the tummy. The folks were here in Stuttgart and that resulted in such great culinary wonders that not for a moment we felt we were away thousand miles from India. So here is a small walkthrough over what we treated ourselves with.

Caution: If you are somewhere in office or on a diet or craving for food, DON'T read further! Reading ahead and looking at these pictures could give you serious cravings, withdrawal symptoms and greedy tongues.

Yellow spongy bliss.
Khaman dhokla has been the snack of choice for every self-respecting gujju fond of food. Though not made as ubiquitously like the humble idli, it is a well known dish even to non-gujjus.

Top up these yellow steamed cubes with heavenly alphonso mango-ras and puris and it is a already on way to being one of the best lunches ever.
Whats for dinner, btw?

The Handvo is a relatively unknown dish from Gujarat, more so like a savory cake made by baking ground pulses with veggies of choice and a tasty mustard-spice tempering.
(the pic wasn't intended to make the Handvo look like Pacman, but here it is)

A completely microwaved stuffed Karela (bitter-gaurd) and potato dish. Loads of jaggery and spice, cooked to perfection, over the veggies, topped up with coriander and sev.
Ahaa...

Sinfulicious Daal-Makhni made by the missus, with generous amounts of cream and butter falling just short of the annual dairy produce of New-Zealand.

And here comes the most famous export of Gujju-land after Mahatma Gandhi and the Ambanis. The awesome Pav-Bhaji. Probably the most coalition-friendly dishes of all - a delightful mix of mashed up veggies and pav-bhaji masala and topped up with.... well see for yourself.And yeah, eaten with the humble paav, buttered and browned.Bliss!

Nice little south indian breakfast of bowled upma , only the coffee replaced by aromatic ginger-tea.

Speaking of South-Indian breakfast, how about masala idlis washed down with saffrony Alphonso mango milk-shake?

And now the Western Breakfast. Pancakes with a generous dollop of Apricot Jam. But mixed with Indian ginger-tea again.

Paalak Daal and jeera-rice go well if you in a mood for north-south collaboration. And why leave behind cool refreshing peach-flavored ice-tea?

A very gujju coup.

Gujju bhakhris (parathas) with a most tradtional eggplant-potato curry. Just yummy!

Lemon Slice-cake does the trick to cheer you up on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

And since we mentioned desserts, an Apple-pie with the best light-brown crust in Stuttgart will do just fine.

And to round up this yummy array of savories, we have yet another gujju dessert. The always-underrated Doodh-paak. Yummylicious thick flavoured milk with copious amounts of dry-fruits and saffron.

I'll leave you now drooping with saliva and running to the kitchen/fridge for some life-saving eatables...

Why on Earth....

2009-06-05T17:22:00.006+02:00

... are we killing the planet that keeps us alive in the first place?

Global warming is not a myth anymore. Its wide-ranging effects are being seen everywhere, in form of melting glaciers, extreme temparature changes, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and what not. It is true that we are cooking up our planet faster than we can imagine.

So, on World Environment Day today, lets do our bit and try being better Earth-citizens.

Picture credit: www.aboutmyplanet.com

If (with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)

2009-06-03T15:29:00.007+02:00

Really really bad joke of the day...

Question: What did Jackie Chan's father say to him when he was small?

If you can keep your head when all the east asian baddies around you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can dream - of surviving 3 thousand assorted bruises and cuts
And yet perform the next stunt, no ifs no buts

If you can cope with Hongkong and Hollywood alike
And treat those two imposters just the same

Yours is (every stunt on) the Earth, the legacy of Bruce Lee mixed with Oriental humor and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be Jackie Chan, my son!

* An uncanny flash of PJ struck when coming across an old Jackie Chan flick while browsing channels at my bored apartment in Brussels, missing home and the missus badly.
* Note to self - Must.... have.... Chinese food today...

* Image courtesy: dimsum.co.uk

Tweeter ke do aage tweeter....

2009-05-13T17:37:00.010+02:00

Tweeter ke do peeche tweeter...
Bolo kitne tweeter?

Bad attempt at mixing Bollywood nostalgia with a new internet phenomena and squeeze some humor out of it... But you can't blame a man for trying.

Well, Twitter was around a good 18 months ago... And I had joined-in a year back or so, expecting this to be just one of those new jigs in the social networking wave. Suddenly, come 2009, Twitter is THE place to be!
Everyone around now is a Social Media junkie, every other person is a Web 2.0 expert, and everyone is following everyone (not in the strictest literary terms, but you get it)

Yes, a few celebrities on the Tweeting A-list means good news for fans. Forget mainstream media, forget agents, forget 3rd party info - you can get the goings-on in the minds of celebrities right from the horse's mouth (or so I'd like to believe)

Blogging was for people with a serious urge to write and reach out. Tweeting came out to be great for those who didn't have time to sit down and blog. But people are doing just the opposite. More time is being spent on tweeting and status updating every day! True, social-media habits of people can take you by surprise. I wouldn't have ever thought people would actually have fun writing small twitbits about themselves, and reading up twitbits about others, totally unknown ones too!

Now if you'd excuse me, I have to go and update my Twitter page to tell the world that I am writing a blog. Then I'd update my facebook status that I am tweeting about writing a blog. Then my LifeStream account will get updated with the useless fact about me that I am updating my facebook status about tweeting about writing a blog!
Phew!

image courtesy: http://www.readwriteweb.com

Update: (14.May)
Can't help but post this video. Awesome! Thanks to Alina for sharing this.(if your browser cant see this - get flash installed)

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Movie-inspired tourism

2009-02-27T09:59:00.011+01:00

http://windowseatblog.com/2009/02/slumdog-millionaire-travel-India-movie

This article on a prominent travel site did not surprise me a bit. I'd mentioned in the previous posts how there were 'Slum tours' being conducted in Mumbai. This one just reaffirms it and says, '....Mumbai, and particularly its 175-acre shantytown Dharavi, are experiencing a boost in tourism....'

Slumdog Millionare is now in the league of masterpieces like LOTR, The Sound of Music and Casablanca.
* flashes a half unsmile, midway between straightness and sarcasm.

What 26/11 did to tourism, Slumdog is reverting it back equally and more.
I'm wondering what we'd say to this...

Underdog Millionare

2009-01-30T11:06:00.004+01:00

Much has been said about Slumdog Millionare already.
My two rupees:

The movie is entertaining, yes. But is it extraordinary enough to sweep the oscars? I don’t think so.
Part of the joy in the movie is in the expectation of what happens next, and you begin rooting for the slumdog as he keeps answering correctly and the viewer is engrossed in unraveling the links himself. That's possibly the biggest achievement of the screenplay. And of course some of the shots of Mumbai, slum-life and the kids are breathtaking. More on this here. However, from a superiority point-of-view, I don’t think the movie should be a huge oscar winner. Even ARR who’s got 2 nominations, has done much more brilliant works compared with the mediocare soundtrack (by ARR standards)

If we discount as creative-leeway, the too many horrific incidents coincidently happening to the same set of 3 kids, the screenplay and portrayal of the slum life was pretty much accurate. However, this seems to be a bit too extreme and would cause a lot of heartburn for proud Indians (like me) in the way the west rejoices at the sights of poverty in the developing world. Believe me, I have even seen ads for ‘Slum Tours’ in Mumbai, promising the curious foreigners a glance into the poverty thats so ingrained in Mumbai-life.
Yes, the movie thrives on stereotyping, but then many good successful movies have done so in the past. So maybe if it wins, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Year Two Thousand and Nine

2008-12-30T16:50:00.010+01:00

So an eventful year comes to an end.
The world came torn apart by mad bankers who played poker with the world economy, the mother of all presidential elections came to an end, making an African American the most powerful man on earth, a handful of youngsters tore apart Aamchi Mumbai (making it stand up stronger and more determined than ever).... and on a personal front, we both celebrated our first 12 months of the institution thats called marriage.

Christmas time is an empty kinda thing here in Germany. Streets are void, the snow is chilling and people are all inside their homes. So unless you have family here with whom you can spend your 4 days of vacationing, stuffing yourself to the ends of obesity in the process, you (read: all desis) MUST plan a trip out somewhere. Europe gives you quite many options to do that, though they are fairly limited during the cold winters.

So what was it be this time? Salzburg - the land of Mozart and the Von Trapps (remember the Sound of Music?)
After a good 3 days and a hugely overjoyed wife, we both are back to home, although not without a considerable hangover which (obviously) wants the vacations to never end.
The highlights of the trip surely being the Untersberg trip - up in the snowy peaks, and the trip to the Beer Museum - StieglBrau that was followed by a number of complimentary glasses of freshly brewed Austrian speciality washed down the throat.

Its that time of the year.
The aftereffects of too much beer
Makes you feel funny in the head,
And you say instead...
Meppy Christmas and Hairy You Near!

Have a great 2009 everyone!

Enough is enough

2008-12-09T17:47:00.003+01:00

(A new post appears on this webpage after almost 5 months. But when would one speak out, if not at this time?)

Few months ago, we Indians were talking our heads off about a group called NSG - The Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Politicians threatened to resign, the media speculated and sensationalized, the intellectuals debated, discussed and the indifferent ridiculed the whole circus about the Nuclear Deal.

Come November 2008, India was talking about another NSG this time. NSG, the elite group of commandos that was supposed to protect our...... err... great leaders against misbehaving crowds and the occasional assasin!
Did someone say they were also supposed to protect us? We the people? Are you kidding? They way they were stationed back there in Delhi, the way they were brought in to Mumbai in a plane borrowed from Chandigarh, the way they waited at the Mumbai airport for an hour, waiting for a 'best' bus (notice the irony) to take them to the scene of action, it certainly didn't seem so...

Looking at the way the NSG men worked non stop for 60 hours, I felt a sense of pride.

And I have never felt so proud and sorry for my country at the same time!

On one side there were the unselfish staff at the two hotels, the dutiful firemen, the unitiring police constables, the common people who quenched the thirst of the ones at the site, and of course the NSG themselves.

And on the other side there was the ever sensationalist media, and the juggernaut called Maar-khaa Dutt who ran amok pushing aside survivers, commandos and the onlookers, the spineless politicians profiting on the situation, all the bickering to get to the CM's seat, the Intelligence failure or the government's failure to heed to intelligence, and the complete bureaucracy which ensured that the NSG arrived at the scene not earlier than 9 hours after the attacks started.

Can somebody pls explain to the procurement department in the Government, police or whatsoever, that rifles and pistols from the world war 2 do not work in this new century! And yeah, Bullet proof vests are supposed to stop... you got it.... bullets!!

Guess any fundamentalist anywhere in the world might be thinking now... "Hell, I could just borrow my friend's fisherman raft, 'pak' my rucksack with the latest ammo, reach the shores of Mumbai and just bomb the hell out of the city! Wait, I need not do that myself. I'll just get a downtrodden guy in the 20s, brainwash him against the Western ideology and he will be ready to kill left-right-center even before you can say, 'Jihad'!"

This is simply not done!

And yeah, bombing the neighbouring country isn't going to help. Even though if it might, then the first thing is to get our internal security system in place. Someone needs to get tough and tax the junta a few percentage points more, just so that our police and the NSG get the minimum required equipment, the Naval guards get the right gear to monitor our porous shorelines and the people in the public security services get paid well !

Till the time we have malnourished-looking and underpaid policemen, who have to sadly cling to old time rifles and 'laathis', and till the time we all started respecting their profession just a little bit more, things wouldn't change.

I wish they would.

Football, flying and the feeling of irony...

2008-05-19T13:17:00.009+02:00

Excuse the bad alliteration in the subject line, but its for want of a better phrase...

21st May, 2008, the biggest football match of this season in Europe will unfold.
Mancheter United take on Chelsea FC.

Thats tomorrow.

The 2 best English teams of today will fight out the highest trophy in Europe. Its already assured that an English club will be the Champion of the continent.
And the irony is - the English national side didnt even qualify for the EURO 2008 happening this June.

My Personal irony:
As I travel between 2 of the greatest footballing cities in the world, flying from Lisbon to Madrid (and the next day back to Stuttgart), the feeling of void, of having missed one of the best footballing actions ever, will stay for quite some time.

I wish they had live TV on flights :P

What I now know about flying

2008-05-17T01:35:00.012+02:00

- That a 3 hour flight journey is as bad as a 10 hour one, if you don't have something proper to read on the way, and/or you end up in a seat beside a 120 kg fella who conveniently spills over adjacent arm-rests.

- That 'Catcher in the Rye' is different, and good! Probably worth the accolades it has got, but it makes you feel like strangling that guy Holden Caulfield for being so irritating. (but thats what the author wanted I guess)

- That Air France stewardesses will go out of their way to freak you out (and always more than once) if you happen to get one of those seats at the Emergency Door.
"Sir, I have to ask you AGAIN - you must jock open this Emergency door if and when I tell u so. Is it FINE with you? (or should I ask some other ignorant fool to take your place?)"

- That the Emergency Door seats do have their latent advantages. There is so much leg room, you can almost tap dance there! (ok, that was a bit over the top, but you get the drift...)

- That Air France meals are actually decent, but if your crossiant topples out of your tray and rolls over to the bottom of the seat behind (and below the shoes of the guy sitting there), its actually not good news.

- That the laws of Physics do not work inside aircrafts compartments. (Murphy's laws do, though). So, no, the crossiant will NOT roll back to your feet when the plane actually applies its landing breaks.

- That having a connnection at Paris - Charles De Gaulle, and catching it smoothly is equivalent to expecting the Deccan (Dis)chargers reach the semifinals of the IPL.

- That if you happen to be dropped off at a CDG terminal other than your connecting one, then you could might as well say adeiu to your flight if it leaves in less than 45 mins. (forget asking why on earth did the airline offer you this impossible connection anyway)

- That Air France does have Boeing aircraft too on its fleet. 'French connection' doesn't come in way of free-market dynamics. (My solitary MBA gyaan for today. No such observations anymore)

- That at 2200 hours, due to the low flight traffic, the quick-as-ever ground handling staff at Lisbon airport will deliver your baggage to the conveyer belt in record time. In just less than 32 minutes. Really.

- That having an actually decent flight is not half as interesting as pretending it was lousy and cribbing about it online. :)

Of 'guilt at the stoppages' and megapixel rains

2008-03-15T03:12:00.010+01:00

Imagine....
Its a nice sunday afternoon and you are just done with a family lunch. Then you get to your fav place in the drawing room and get glued to the television. It hasnt been a few minutes of visual joy, when the screen goes abruptly still! (much like the blue screen of death in Windows) And then there is a flash with the very familiar words:

'Rukawat ke liye khed hai'.....

Rings a bell?

And the 'Guilt at the Stoppage' doesn't stop there. Its very smoothly followed by a black-and-white mesh of haywire pixels, juxtaposed with a sound which is oddly similar to heavy rain falling on a metal sheet.
No other channels to jump to, the disappointed yet hopeful spectator had nothing else to do but to wait till the black-and-white rain subsided.

Circa early 80s: Television had arrived!

Its difficult to forget the eerie DD signature tune that reminded of graveyards and the ugly-looking DD logo that looked more like a top-view of a Mexican hat gone slightly awry. See that and you will agree >>

And what characters! The kid called Swami in small town South-India, the carrot-eating investigator, the forgetful day-dreamer, the Sherlock-Holmes-styled white-clad bengali detective, the huge bunch of myriad characters at a roadside corner (nukkad), white-haired ghosts taking a ride on the shoulders of unnerved Kings, bunch of youth hanging out on campus, a prime-minister telling us stories of India's glorious past, families with a member-count higher than the population of Australia, and badly-done special-effects of mythological characters throwing at each other, weapons of every possible dimension.... just to name a few. They were the ones who made the evenings and Sundays enjoyable for every middle-class home in India.

So starved were we of motion pictures or anything remotely similar, that on lazy Sunday afternoons, we ended up watching regional-language movies (forget about understanding a word of it), and even news bulletins for the deaf-and-dumb!! Now thats desperation.

These were just a few lines about the hey-days of old-time idiot-box, fully garnished with doses of nostalgia and memorabilia.... but hey, don't pull out your tissues or mom's pickles just yet.

On a philosophical note, the memories remain at their pedestal, as long as they are those faint memories. The moment you take them out of the grandma's closet and wham - there goes the charm! It hits you right there in the face that something which you always cherished from the past, actually tips precariously towards mediocrity, and towards a big disconnect with the immediate present.

But more about that later...

(Next post - a few of the favorite old-time shows...)

Elect me! I'm a woman and he is black!

2008-02-09T23:44:00.000+01:00

The American President elections - everyone knows it 'different' this time.
But why on earth do these polls need to continue for almost an year? The whole cicrus began late last year and the finals would take place in November 2008! Thats really long... I mean, within that much time, the Chinese would have cooked up a bit more of the world's share of greenhouse, Pakistanis would have killed 4 more politicians (assuming there are any more left) and 20 new bomb attacks would have been manufactured in the the Palestine-area!
Ever since the drama has started, CNN, the lone English channel on my television has been covering it 14 hours out of 24, robbing viewers like me of many more important topics - world peace and global warming, for instance! And football.
No, really! :)

I like Obama by the way.
I think its something to do with the confidence that shows on his face when he is on the stage. And its good that a colored person is coming so close to the White-House for the first time. He is somewhere between a rightist and a leftist. Besides, he isn't even completely black! The best part is that he never plays the 'Racial Card' to downplay his origins of his skin-color.
Nice.

Which reminds us of Senator clinton, who never misses out on reminding the world (and the gullible voters) that she was born with two X chromosomes. (We already know that, Ma'am!) Playing the gender card comes as easy to her as it comes to Bush on sending more troops to Iraq. Why do half of the Democrats like her so much? If she could handle her shaky marriage and kept it strong, she would probably do the same to a shaky United States, right?
You bet!
And speaking of confidence, I couldn't trace that at all on her face, which more so showcases a makeup experiment gone horribly wrong. That, topped with an pageant-like artifical smile that refuses to disappear from her powdered chins.

John McCain looks like that solid-old senior citizen who has promised his great granddaughter a seat to the White-House. But he might even end up winning the seat, just because the Republicans would probably rig the polls, or because of the Bush magic, which surprisingly has shone (and still shines) since the last 2 terms.

Poor Democrats. You should have known that the government is for the people, of the people and rigged by the people.

Speaking of rigging, the American polls are a total sham on the delight of elections! I mean, look at the Indian elections. What interesting scenarios here - rigging, violence, booth capturing, mud-slinging, back-stabbing, threatening, bribing, horse-trading, hung-parliament and what not! The candidates in the US are so diplomatically-correct, so cordial to each other, never maligning each other - so much that they make our own politicians seem like satan's offsprings!

Footnote PJ:
Why is the US-head a President, and not a Prime Minister?
Because otherwise he/she would have been called 'Sub-Prime Minister'!

:)

Blog in oblivion

2008-02-07T11:55:00.000+01:00

Hello! Anyone there? Koi hai ????????

Seems this webpage has been left alone all along. (I can even visualize weeds growing from the sides of the page... See that?)
Except for the lone visitor here and there, (and a few regular ones who just come in between days just hoping the the blog owner would pull his lazy fingers and type something on the keyboard), there has been NO activity on this blog! Nothing, Zilch, Zuke, Nein, Nowt!

Anyways, as all good things should come to an end, yours truly has decided to restart putting down his random thoughts (or made up ones) on this discarded piece of HTML.

Discarded no more, now...

Reader, pls pull out that weed sticking out from the bottom left, will you?
There! Thanks!

4 AM Morning, snowless European winter and a flat-flat country

2007-02-25T20:28:00.000+01:00

Caution: Long. Very long. But not uninteresting :)

Since last 4 months, visits to the Netherlands have become quite frequent - due to official necessity that keeps arising at expected and unexpected times. These visits start with a extremely early morning flight to Amsterdam, then a 1 hour cab ride to Utrecht at the client office.
Then, back the same way.

Waking up at 4 AM in the morning. Catching the cab at 4:45 AM. And getting my boarding pass at the Stuttgart airport. Ah, doesn't leave me in such a fresh mood at all. But yours truly too bizy dozing off....
Wait! is that cheese sandwich and orange juice on the flight? I'm awake.
And hungry.

Its winter. Its a snowless winter.

6:15 AM

Flight begins on time. Stuttgart airport is never congested. No buses. Direct down the alley into the aircraft door. There you have (sometimes) nice looking Dutch air-hostesses wishing you that your morning is good.
Well, it is.

The usual civilities of aircraft safety - spoken in assortment of German, Dutch and Englees. I am done with skimming through the in-flight magazine in few minutes. This month's issue has a feature on Hyderabad!
Good.

I am now trying to sleep again. Read: make believeing my eyes that I am asleep.

7:50 AM - Arrival in Dutch-land!

Windmills. Tulips. Cheese. Bicycles. Football. Sex.
(the last one was just to draw some attention, in case the reader is already dozing)

I look out of the small window beside and I find a flat landscape with criss crossed lines that are actually canals. I try looking through the other window on the opposite side as well, and the blonde sitting there assumes I am staring at her. Oops.
I turn back my gaze. Of course its the same view from there too!

Digression 1: Prologue to the Netherlands
Haven't seen a flatter country! Its at the sea coast and its so flat (also below the sea-level) that the high tides enter the land areas and flood them outright. For this reason, one can see canals all over Holland, just to keep the tide water in flow. These canals - objects of neccessity, give Holland a distinctive identity, that is even oh-so visible from the sky! And then there are dikes that prevent the sea-tides at the shores outright. For these tall countrymen, the war with the sea is a never ending one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Netherlands

Quick fact: Canals of Venice are murky, dirty and close ended to the buildings. In Holland, they are more like rivers. Clean. Asthetic. Occassionally inhabitanted by gorgeous swans and bunches of noisy ducks!
Nice.

Digression 2: Prologue to Amsterdam (well, once I DO see the city properly, I might have more to add)
Its bad enough to miss seeing this city during summer. To top it, havent been able to experience the city in this winter as well! Yes it's beautiful in the summer months. Tulips that bloom, canals that meander through the heart of the city - cafes and bistros that are lined up on the sides, some good architectural visuals, and of course, the famous red light district.
(I happen to look up a map of Amsterdam while waiting at the airport, and voila, there I see an area marked specially as 'Red Light District' - a rarity for sure)
Well, the city is famous for that area ridden with so many caberets, massage parlors, sex shops, strip bars and of course the women (and men!) engaged in the 'trade' - full time. Holland isn't called the sex capital of Europe just like that!

Did someone mention sex? :P

8:15 AM
Sitting in the cab on the way to Utrecht.

Way out of airport driveway leads to the cross-road between Utrecht and Rotterdam.
Spotted a huge signboard of TCS visible from the airport driveway. Europe is getting faster on offshoring. Whats MY employer doing?
The soothing back-seat upholstry in the Mercedes Benz is a treat to the.... ahem... hinds. :)
Our cab guy is the extremely amiable Soerish. (loosely corrupted from 'Suresh' if you are curious) From an Indian family originating from Surinam, had been in Netherlands as far as he can remember. Indian roots are very much intact though - and bollywood music is one branch to cling to, passionately.
Surprise! Amsterdam and Utrecht have their own Hindi Radio channel! Its called 'Ujala Radio' and if you excuse the weird accent and half Dutch that accompanies the nattily written script of the RJ, it does manage to entertain. I mean, sitting there in the comfy back seat of the E-class, I am treated to numbers like 'Suhaani Raat dhal chuki...' (classic!), 'Aye Dile Nadaan...' and 'Khalbali'! Funny how after listening to an array of bollywood songs, I am tempted to sing aloud James Brown - 'Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good...!
Dammit! There's a Himesh track thrown as well!

Maybe I'll try that 'I feel good' song next morning in the hotel room shower. :)

9:15 AM
Arrived at the client office. From then, the 'I feel good' counter is backwards!
Meetings. email. Coffee. Meetings. Lunch. Conference call. Meetings.
Wishing it to get over soon.

6:30 PM
Time to go!
Reach hotel room. Check in. Check out the room. Go for dinner.

11 PM
Hit the bed.
Its been an early morning actu.......zzzz

Friday. Next day
Checked out of hotel. Reached office again.
Done with the regular stuff of knocking heads with clients.

5:30 PM
Time to go.
Rush hour. Long drive. Hasty arrival. Schumacher-ish driver.

7 PM: Amsterdam Schipol Airport
Long queue at security check mocks at us. "Hah!" I say.

Digression 3: Crazy EU flying rules
The new EU rules tell me that I am not allowed to carry liquids, and if any, they should be in less than 100 ml packaging (why?) and carried in a transparent plastic bag. Ah, I already know that from Stuttgart, but its much strictly enforced here.
I see an attractive blonde being held up for not complying. She shows her bag to the attendent. The overwhelming contents of the bag emptied on to the table. Voila! Out comes a complete survival kit of sorts! At least 40 items!
Lesson learnt: If you wanna see how one can survive on a stranded island with a smal bag full of stuff (Castaway?) - check out such a woman's purse.

Frustated by the snail-pace of my queue. I see that the queue next to mine is smaller. I apply my quick logic - so I decide to shift to that one. It seemed that the people at the security check were not amused, because from that moment on, my queue started getting slower and slower.

~~~~
Murphy's law of serpentine queues:
Amongst a number of queues at the same place, the queue that you choose will be the slowest!
Corollary to the law:
If in the middle, if you decide to shift to a queue adjoining that is moving fast, from that moment, your new queue will become the slowest of all.
~~~~

8:10 PM
Quick dinner at the food-lounge over. Waiting for boarding. Gate C 22 to 28 seem worse than a State transport bus stop in India. Only cleaner.

8:35 PM
On board. Bring on the sandwich and the juice!

10:30 PM
Home sweet home. Sleepy again.

PS: Did someone say Amsterdam is the.... .... capital.. ?
PS2: That blog post promised in the previous post below will come soon, of course.

Unity in Diverse-cities

2006-12-11T00:08:00.000+01:00

Finally found it!
Had been looking for this video for quite some time now.... And there it was - the very tv-show filler that I'd seen ages back on our very own National channel.

Remember the video - 'Ek-Anek'?
Does 'Ek chidiya, anek chidiya' ring a bell?

This is one of those few tv-shows that I practically grew up on!
One of the simplest lessons that explained grammer - how plurals worked, simplified mathematics - how counting should be done, and put this damn simple thought in the little children's heads that 'Unity is the way to go!'
Ah, those were the simple days of Doordarshan....
(and I shall continue this discussion in the subsequent post...)

Further from the previous post....

2006-11-29T23:45:00.000+01:00

The few lines in the previous post about wars in Europe remind me about something that happened last week in Stuttgart. A construction group was busy in activity at a site, and they unearthed something which we have only heard stories about, but its fairly common across this place. I'm talking about bombs. And huge ones!

While digging through the layers of earth, the site workers happened to come across a HUGE bomb, unexploded since last many many years - which apparently was dropped there during the world war 2. And there it lay, untouched and undestroyed....
That was enough to cause frenzy all around and soon the area was cordoned off, while the special bomb squad folks jumped in. Traffic and movement of trains came to a standstill around that area.

By the way, Stuttgart was one of those cities that was almost completely destroyed by bombing during the World War, and had been newly rebuilt. Thats the reason for its modernistic public transport and its public buildings. In and around Germany, its a fairly common thing to discover these sort of things, but hey, a bomb is a bomb! Who can beat that...?

On a lighter note, an interesting theory I read, about how the World War I started:
"A Serbian rebel killed an Austrian prince, so everyone declared war on Germany."
:-)

The Inscrutable Europeans

2006-11-21T23:16:00.000+01:00

Firangs are weird people!
I'm sure half the population of Europe would find ME, the asian, weirder, but as the owner of this conversation I'll just let that point of conflict pass.... :-D

Ya I know, each society has a way of norms, behaviour and lifestyle and blah blah... but puhleese let me have the menial pleasure of ripping apart the ways of some foreigners that I find really surprising or stomach-tickling or both!
With all due respect, they (my clients) are the ones who provide the bread and butter for my employer, which in turn does a (half) decent job of giving me my daily bread.... so...

Firangs have a way of doing EVERYTHING systematically. Thats a good thing, considering that they usually end up doing a quality job. (especially engineering and sports!) But 'systematically' usually has an after-effect of turning into 'boringly one thing at a time'!

Try getting towards a salesman here when he is attending another customer, and all you'll get is a big IGNORE! Of course you'll have to wait till he is over with the current person that has occupied all his limited attention.
Try telling a foreigner about 2-3 different things simultaneously, and you can be damn sure his processor will hang! Good-ol' multitasking - I dont think its exists in the foreign dictionary.

And they in no comparable ways can get closer to us desis in terms of money-management, cash-optimization! (I'll tell you what it means... by an example)

A friend of mine in Amsterdam had the following interaction with his client. (he was offered the luxury of being given a lift to office by the client Project lead (PL))
Friend: Hey, I'll wait at the R-square and you can pick me up from there.
PL: Okie, what time you'd be there?
Friend: Oh, just gimme a miss-call on my cell just when you leave, and I'll be there in 5 mins.
PL: What is a miss-call? why would I give you a 'miss-call'?
Friend: Oh, its when you give me a call and I don't pick it... Just to let me know that you are on your way.
PL: (confused) But why would I not pick the phone if you call me?
Friend: (aaaaaaahhhhh !!!!!)

Once at a shop I managed to cough up a bill of 5 euros and 18 cents. I paid the cashier a 10 bucks crispy note and wished I wouldn't be stralled with a handful of loose change of cents. Then I realized I had 20 cents with me that might save me (and her) some bit of trouble. So I handed that to her with a new 5 euros note and asked for the 10 rupee note back. That did it! Her system totally crashed! Firstly because she had already entered 10 in her cash registers, and secondly bcos she totally lost track of the transactions that we were mutually were into! (whatever happened to math classes in junior school?)

And of course there is this vast cultural difference - which a desi is duly subjected to, from the moment he/she enters phoren land. Be it the Public Displays of Affection, or the way senior citizens are treated (bad, really bad), or the way individuality and professionalism is rooted here, or the way they eat, drink and party - everything is oh-so different here!
A greet to everyone you meet - its the norm. Its really a good thing to have around - politeness and 'assumed' nicety, but after a while when you see everyone speaking the same thing artificially, EVERYDAY, it can get to your nerves.
(Prakash seems to think on simlar lines) :-)

A friend of mine who had recently moved in with her husband to Stuttgart was asked by her landlady whether the guy was her husband or boyfriend! (ya, I know live-in relationships are slowly picking up in India too, but a question like this?)

Another friend of mine had this conversation: (oh so typical :-))
Foreigner: Are you married or single?
Friend: Single :-)
Foreigner: Do you have children?
Imagine this being spoken in India. Something like this would send the person on a minor heart attack!

On a serious, more factual note:
Europeans have been at the crux of the Industrial revolution. They have been the foremost in science, technology, the arts and monarchy. They are responsible for all the development around the world (and also responsible for all the backwardness due to colonization - thats the irony) Such a small continent, so beautiful to the eyes, divided in small small pieces of nationalities, each speaking a different language, each weirder than the other! Europe is one its kinda continent (ok, ok - we don't have many continents anyways)
The funny part is - most of the nations have ended up fighting each other throughout the centuries and still have remained the most developed and rich nations. Except beautiful Switzerland which hasn't fought wars, probably explained by Scott 'Dilbert' Adams' theory that cooler nations have had lesser battles, ha ha.. Maybe while the whole world was busy killing the world, the Swiss were too busy freezing their chocolate covered nuts! lolz!

But all things apart.... there are hundreds of things we Indians could learn from these goras, of course! (too big a discussion - might take a whole new post and a very hopeful mood for that, maybe for later :-) )
Prakash and me both are seeing the ways of foreign land (in separate continents), and that is naturally accompanied by a mental comparison between that place and our very own motherland.... so be it! :-D

Peace.
And, Jai Hind!

A 'Reverse Lagaan'

2006-11-12T20:36:00.000+01:00

We had a kinda 'Reverse Lagaan' setting today! Don't get confused - its just a stupid phrase coined by me for this blog post... (probably just bcos I could think of nothing better to describe the scene with :-) )

A gang of desis (all office colleagues) decide to gather together for a long-due round of Cricket on a lazy Sunday! After the people had gathered as per IST, the game began in a small ground amongst a quiet neighbourhood. The ground not being large enough, restrictions were made on long shots, lest every self-confessed Dhoni went on a window-pane breaking spree!

Now coming to the 'Reverse Lagaan' part - remember the scene in the movie where Bhuwan and his friends sneak in near a cricket ground boundary and begin wondering what the 15 goras were doing with 2 sticks and a ball? Thats what happened today with us - only that this time the desis were inside the ground and the goras were out, ha ha!
As our game went on, passerbys (all native Germans) began wondering what kinda silly game we were up to! Some found it quite interesting and paused for a while to have a closer look. Amused they were, yes!
Some tried chatting up with the boundary fielders, asking them:
1. What this funny game was called and if it was something they knew as Baseball?
2. How the hell was one supposed to play it?(now that none of the desis there spoke an acceptable level of German, is a different thing)

And it having rained the previous night, the ground was muddy and slippery, but who cared! A few hours of cacophonous cricket so far from Bharatvarsh - was just what the desis needed to feel happy! Clothes and hands were all dirty after the game... but who cared!
My long-unexercised arms still ache from the numerous wide/no/dead balls in an over - all due to the fact that I touched bowling after years!
(and my blue jeans looks like a 'before' piece from a 'before-after' commercial for a stain-removing detergent!)
But who cares, we had fun! :-)

Speaking of cricket and dirty clothes, here's something that I recently came across:
"I cannot for the life of me see why the umpires, the only two people on a cricket field who are not going to get grass stains on their knees, are the only two people allowed to wear dark trousers." ~Katharine Whitehorn
.

Orkut and the fine art of socializing

2006-10-26T13:11:00.000+02:00

I just realized. Sitting in the train and jabbering down your thoughts on the laptop isn't sucha difficult thing after all. I did this today.

Its funny how a piece of technology manages to take over our social lives. Yes, I'm talking about Orkut.

We live in a globalized world. And the World is Flat. And we have friends scattered all over the planet. Friends, with whom we would like to get back in touch with.
Friends, brothers, sisters, cousins, crushes, seniors/juniors from school/college/playschool :-), the neighborhood gundas, the gal-next-door... you name it! All of them can be accessed with a click of the mouse! Good na!
I myself have found so many old friends through this... (and I'm sure its the same case for everyone else around)

And Orkut is spreading like wildfire... Have been on this site since almost 2 yrs now, but never bothered to check it out much. But the last 10 months or so, its exploded!
This July when I spent 12 hours at the Mumbai airport (thanx to the annual floods occuring) I noticed at least 3 ppl in different places, sitting with their laptops and... Orkutting!

Welcome to the world of online socializing!
Of course nothing can beat the charm of meeting the person for real, but this is a workable delight sitting thousands of miles away from each other.

And how could the discussion be complete without the an eulogy to the never-ending list of DFSs (aka Desperate Friend Seekers)
Wow, I love this part....

There are loads of DFSs crawling all over the internet... loads. And if you just happen to mention in your profile that you are a female between 18 to 28 there will be loads of them wanting to make 'franship' with you and scrapping the nuts out of you....
Ya... female - thats enough. A sweet-sounding name and/or a pic that is remotely feminine will multiply the 'franship' offers almost-instantly. Uploading a few more of such pics on the album will result in exponential increase in the friends requests and scrappps!

I mean I know from a few of my gal-friends that everyday when they log on to their orkut, dozens of 'franship' requests stare them in the face on the homepage.... and it gets so irritating to click on 'NO' for each of them, one by one. Aha, the pleasures of being a guy... you don't (usually) have to go through this, he he!
As if the 'franship' requests are not enough, there are the scrapyards! Aha, welcome to the free arena of oh-I'm-so-cooool scraps, where each DFS comes up with one cheesy line after another (some in bold, italics, eastman color) - just to grab attention. (remember the Joey, 'How are u doin?' thingy'?)

I dunno how some people get kicks out of seeing more and more gals in their friend's list, even if they have no clue whatsoever about them or about their lives. Ah, maybe they think, the way to a gal's heart is through her 'Friend's list' :-) Someone pls educate me.

Here are some of the cornier examples:
(names have been withheld to protect identity, including mine ;-0 )
(Consider the responses in brackets below to be that of a PAL - Pretty Annoyed Lady)

Hi how r u?
(PAL: Hello, am i gonna tell random strangers how am I doing - whether I feel on top of the world or down in the dumps or both?)

hi, cute pic / nice pic / what a blah-blah pic!
(PAL: Well for starters, Thank you, but don't expect me to scrap you back. Its not a 'I scrap... err scratch your back, you scratch mine' thing)

Would you like to make franship with me?
This one takes the cake mann! I mean, if this works with a gal whom you've has never met/talked/chatted in life before, I could myself fancy my chances of using this line successfully with with Catherine Zeta Jones! Ah!
And the Engleees is just.... Subhaanalla...!!
more cornier versions of this:
'Would you like frenship with mee?'
'Hi I'm Narayan Kumar Babu from Rajpur, pleees freind me...'

Hi I'l w8 4 scrp, tc, by!
(PAL: This guy is having an SMS nightmare)

Waiting 4 your screp, byeeeeeeeeeee... !!!!!!!!!!!!!
(PAL: Hey, why was the 'byeeeee' for...? Aaye, scrap kiye, aur chal diye...? And sochte ho ki ladki patt jaayegi?? ha ha)
Still beats me why the extra e's and the hordes of exclamation marks added - was this guy having an orgasm while writing this? :-P

(And here are the try-again till you drop types...)
I screp yu but yu had not respond me so care to replay
(HA HA... ROTFL !!!)

And finally... this - yes, I've seen at least 2 such scraps in other ppl's scrap books. Laughed for 9.5 minutes non-stop!
Hi I woud like u as frend, pls send me a massage!
(Need I say more? :-) )
.

Waiting....

2006-10-24T15:14:00.000+02:00

Ok, that was just to grab attention. The fact remains that I've been busy like hell... and hence no time for chitter-chat on this webpage! No, wait... maybe I've run out of ideas too.... :-)

But like every other self-confessed writer, I'd think of something snooty to pen down... eventually. So..... here's me saying, "Yeah... I'll be back soooon...."

Weekend.... thou art quick!

2006-10-16T01:12:00.000+02:00

Another weekend comes and goes....

Saturday was full of shopping for goodies... just to keep our home sweet home in order.... Keeping the house liveable for 4 bachelors is equivalent to a battle. And you gotta keep all the artillery ready for that.... (unfortunately the battle is a never ending one...)

And today Sunday..... 9 of us friends from office got together, deciding to pay a visit to a beautiful 19th century castle close to Munich. And well, was it good or what!!
(more about that in Travelogue 2, maybe...)

As I write this at midnight on Sunday... another week of project work beckons from tomorrow. But I guess I'll survive!

The one book I've been trying to finish since last 10 days is 'Jack - Straight from the Gut' - one of those which was long pending since the b-school days. But it continues at this snail pace only due to the fact that I find time to read it only during my commute between work and office - the 30 min train ride that actually relaxes! (not kidding!)

Bah-bye Sunday!

Travelogue

2006-10-03T23:57:00.000+02:00

My blog is evolving into a travelogue of sorts (though I didnt mean it to be, initially). But when you are lucky enough to travel to places that many people have just read and dreamt of, you gotta brag like hell! Besides, it gives me a readymade subject to write on that my friends would actually enjoy, rather than read about my opinionated notions about the world that's all centered around me. Excuse me sometimes, puhleeaaase! :-)

But hey there is another positive. Maybe I'd get really famous writing about my expeditions, maybe TOI would do a cover feature on me, maybe 'Lonely Planet' would discover my hitherto hidden talents and give me a handsome advance for my first Travel book, alike Ms. Kaavya, and maybe a part of the advance would be a free cruise to Gibraltor so that I could write about the island and the mediterranean - some 5-star resort treatment thrown in as well!!! Woooh!

Ok. Ding Dong! Landing back to reality!

I now present, short descriptions of two very eventful excursions - Munich Oktoberfest and the Swiss Alps! :-)

Oktoberfest

Germany and specially Munich is world renowed for its Oktoberfest. Its a 3 week long Beer fest that happens every year in the later part of September. Every self-respecting beer drinker in the world considers this as a pilgrimage that one should do, no matter where in the world! Munich being just 3 hours away in the train, was an easy choice, so we went there on the Sunday when the Costume parade takes place. We reached Munich just on time when that started. The main streets where the parade would move through, had people decked up on both sides waiting to watch the visual extravaganza. There were the locals dressed in traditional attire walking in sync, with different kinds of props, orchestras walking and playing the music, decorated vehicles, bob-carts, horse carriages etc. all walking gallantly. And we happily watched and took pictures.

The parade pathway led to the big ground where the tents and the rides were set up. The tents accomodate between 6000 to 9000 people each and have tables spread all over. A group wud be lucky to get a seat on a weekend. And there were waitresses carrying oversized beer jugs, sometimes 7-8 of them together (1 ltr each!) and serving it to the ppl on the tables. And loads of carnivorous dishes (and some veggie ones) to go with that....

I personally have a very sporadic intake of the spirits (pun unintended :-)), and even those rare moments have been in good times only with friends around. This was one of those times - so I enjoyed. :-)

The parade

One of the 10 big tents (each seats around 10000 ppl!)

The waitresses who manage to carry all the heavy beer mugs with striking ease

Switzerland Ahoy!

Quick. What comes to your mind when you say Swiss?
Alps? Chocolates? cheese? watches? bells? Army Knives? banks?

Switzerland is all of these..... and much more!I might as well spend the next few thousand words describing about the Swiss experience, but it will still fall short of describing totally what this heaven is all about. All superlatives would not be enough. Probably it would be an insult to 'write' about a place which has to be 'seen' to be experienced.

So I'll leave you with only a few glimpses of heaven on earth.... (maybe I'd write more about that when my I'm done with the hangover that this beautiful place has left on me)

I'm still hopeful about the Gibraltor cruise, though... :-)
.

Happiness, Positivism and Chemical Locchas of the mind

2006-09-19T20:15:00.000+02:00

'Lagey Raho Munnabhai' is a laugh riot! But more than that - it is starkingly positive. Its important to have such movies that just take us back to the light hearted moments, reminding you to smile. [An excellent review here by Pratiksha].
People waste away too many precious hours of their lives worrying, sulking about their money, their work-loads, performance appraisals, troubled relationships and global warming and nuke attacks! There are loads of better things to be happy about, isn't it?

(Its 8 pm and I'm just done with my office-work for today. But still writing this while sitting at my desk - 'cos one should always find time for doing things that one likes :-))

Everyone likes to be happy. But that makes me wonder, if its so good, why wouldn't people be that way all the time? What keeps people away from being happy within themselves?

Maybe:

There are anti-elements everywhere that schemingly obstruct happiness. Situations, other people, destiny...
Man remains a dissatisfied creature (generally speaking) or it's like saying - 'Happiness is relative'. People compare their own well-being with their immediate counterparts and that brings unhappiness (even if they themselves are much well-in-place)
A lot of people, (yes - a lot), when faced with some adverse situation, send their rational minds on a long coffee break and get taken over by all negative thoughts. They find 'adverse situations' a perfect alibi to convince themselves why they must be unhappy in life!

Can one stop this chemical loccha in the mind? Yeah, of course! I feel if one 'chooses' to be happy, one would feel so - no matter what! And I say that by experience.

What, me worry?

I do not go the extra mile to be nice and friendly to the people around me. It comes from within. When I do something that is rightfully good, its because I feel so - and not to score my brownie points with God. When I am friendly and helpful to someone - its because I get an inner satisfaction doing that. Of course there are times when things do not go as you want. But thats not the time to get mad. Stupid and senseless behaviour does not enrage me, but I'm amused and often hopeful that the person does get some sense in his/her beautiful mind.When people with IQ half that of mine do things that are in all probablity, anger-spawning, I behave otherwise. Unruffled - its me.

I do not wish to change the world. (I like the way it is - 'Imperfect') I do not dream to become like Superman, wear a mask with spare underwear on top of my pants and pretend to save the world! (though I wish I had the ability to.... ;-))

But seriously speaking, I just wish the world be a much happier place, much simpler and with lesser pretensions. Movies like 'Lagey Raho..' remind you of that time-to-time.

I watched 'Lagey Raho..' for the 2nd time yesterday, and I stil have a contented smile on my face. I feel like writing a joy song right-away but can't find a word at hand that rhymes with 'yapa-dipee-dooo'!

:-)

PS: Probably one of my most confused posts ever. But that's what I call a system-dump of my thoughts.

PS 2: Laughter is the best medicine. Even if you are not sick....

Pandora in Paris

2006-09-12T20:02:00.000+02:00

4:30 am is not a time of the day when your alarm screams below ur pillow and you feel grateful to the tiny appliance for having done the honours of waking you up. Just like any normal being, I felt like throwing it off to the other corner of the room! But this was not one of 'those' days. It was the day of the Paris trip on a Saturday morning, and I darn well wasn't going to miss my money spent on the flight booking. So there I got up and in 2 hours was there at the Stuttgart airport - all sleepy-eyed but ready to take the plunge to... PARIS!

Charles de Gaulle Airport does a great job of confusing the hell out of it's unsuspecting passengers. Its huge, its a whole city out there with isolated gigantic terminals spread miles from each other! But we were lucky to get out of there without wasting much time - and soon we were on the RER that took us bang-on to the center of the city.

Every other person you see on the Paris streets is a tourist - and if you commit the fallacy of asking them for directions, you might be bombarded with any random language on earth. However, French in all broken avtaars seemed to rule the roost. I recalled my shabbily taken French beginner's course back in B-school, and it guiltfully reminded me of the apparent benefits of a well-learnt foreign lingo. Hmmm.... I should've known earlier...

The mother of all museums - The Louvre
The very place where Dan Brown's masterpiece begins was something to watch out for. Though the whole detailed visit of the museum would require a couple of days, we rushed through that in 3 hours - call it 'Desi paisa-wasooli' 'cos we had many other places to cover in only 2 days!

At the museum, among the thousands of first-time tourists with amused eyes, there were species of a different kind. Art enthusiasts, historians, archeologists, numismatists, all with a penchant for art that would've given Robert Langdon a serious complex.

The Mona Lisa was superb, to say the least! Then we were at the glass pyramid outside that has so frequent mentions in the cult book. The feeling was of rememberances and relating the things we saw to the things we had read in 'The Da Vinci Code'. Makes me think - 'yeah, maybe we wouldn't have enjoyed seeing this museum so much had it not been for Dan Brown's book.... '

Eiffel Tower at night is a marvel! Its a magic done in lights which can be visible from miles away.We decided to enjoy the visual brilliance there and go up its canopy the during the daytime the next day. The frustating wait of 2-3 hours for a 20 odd mins stay up at the top can get to ones nerves, but we still waited, ever-expectant. The view from the top was MIND-BLOWING! Sriram, my buddy, managed to pay a visit to the loo up there (all of 300 mts height) and he proudly took home a memory of pissing at the highest point of Paris! :-)

There were quite a few other great places that we saw. The best part was our open-air tour bus that took us around town with its 8-language Audio tour (who cared about the other 7 languages anyway :-)). Saw the Moulin Rouge Cabaret Theatre from the outside - the same place where the Nicole Kidman musical was shot. As our open air bus passed through that street (Boulevard de Clichy), the unending array of Sex shops and Massage Parlors became visible - the most conspicuous being the Museum of Eroticism (Musee de l'Erotisme). Enough to give the Indian moral police a massive heart attack!

What I'd surely remember were the Place de la Concorde, Champs-Elysées, Chapel at Notre Dame and the Opera. Places like Château de Versailles and Paris Disneyland were reluctantly skipped - so really 2 days are not enough! A good few hours were spent meandering through the streets and boulevards which were tastefully lined up with Cafes and bistros on both sides of the pavement, serving the choiciest of French wine. Couples - ah, they were all over the place! (and their hands too were all over the place... lolz... :-) )

2 days of hustled tourism, of overdoses in medevial history, of beauty totally man-made, of boulevards, palaces, chapels and top-views, of our aching legs but contented eyes - Paris trip is something wouldn't dilute so easily from the mind. All in all, such an eventful trip surely deserves a longer write-up but these are the times of brevity and rushed schedules.

Paris is a complex city. It breathes and lives art. It has massive structures that take you back to the medevial times, it has a underground metro and a sewage system that beats almost every other city hands down, it has a major migrant population giving an extremely cosmopolitian look, its congested yet beautiful, rushy yet sophisticated, pompous yet pleasurable. This city truly makes romantics out of skeptics with its alluring history and charming modern-day buzz.

It's the city of Love.

At the Louvre's Glass Pyramid

See the shadow of the Eiffel?

Another view of the Siene. (and the adjoining Football field)

The Moulin Rouge

World Cup Finals - 9 July 2006 (Stuttgart)

2006-09-06T00:15:00.000+02:00

If you are really reading this out of your own preference, well I'll just risk asking you to imagine for once... please.... :-)

Imagine being invited to the best gourmet party in the city, but when you reach there you meet smartly dressed waiters picking up the dishes and you wonder how those starters would've tasted and how tempting were the desserts you missed.

Or, imagine going to the best strip-club in town, but so late that you only find the babes fully clad, fully packed up, and ready to leave for the day... (ok, ok, don't get me wrong - I'm just being too imaginative...)

Well, thats how the initial feeling was, on landing in Deutchesland on the day of the final. For 4 months I was waiting for the visa to come through and prayed like hell that I reached at the time of the World cup. Finally the day arrived, but only when the World cup got over - I reached there on the day of the finals! There was a feeling of disappointment, almost surreal, a feeling of having missed the bus - the bus to the greatest event in 4 years!

But i could call that premature despair, as I soon realized things were not so bad...

After all:
- I got to watch the final at the open-air screen amongst thousands of screaming fans in Stuttgart, and drowned in the post-match celebrations.
- I actually got to view almost all the matches in the World cup back home in India. The timings were convenient enough for me to go back home after office-hours and catch them live on television. My friends who had moved to Germany earlier found it really difficult to catch up with the games, especially the first match everyday, simply because they were stuck up in office.

Reached Stuttgart on Sunday morning and having done with the luggage and freshening up - by evening was all ready to go to the city-center at the 'Fan Fest'. The atmosphere was MIND-BLOWING!

When you see around all things that you've been waiting for all this long, at that time you don't care about your possible jet-lag, nor your impending sleep and the aching body, nor worry about reporting at office the next day-Monday! You just shut up and enjoy the show! And I did!

And I'm talking about a massive football crazy crowd jumping, shouting and cheering. There were fans from Italia & France of course, and also people from different nationalities all flocked together - there were thousands! The feeling was great to watch the match on giant open-air screens, the greatest event of the world - in the same country where it was all happening!

(I'd missed the 3rd place match the previous day - been on the flight. But was told that when Germany won, the whole of Stuttgart was on the streets! )

When France scored, one side of the supporters went mad. When both sides missed chances, they despaired. When Zidane headbutted Materazzi, everyone put their hands up in shock! And finally when Italy won, it was frenzy all around. Then the festivities continued late till night...

Samba for Brazil!

We cheered for Italia!

With so much beer flowing around... people do need to piss, don't they?

PS: I'm a total sucker for football. Its my drug of choice!

Trip to Phoren-land

2006-08-29T17:09:00.000+02:00

An account of my travel to Germany (that was almost 2 months ago... see how punctual I am on my blog!) :-)

Travelling to phoren land requires a huge bit of preparations and I was glad Murphy's law didn't play tricks on me this time. Considering it was my maiden trip abroad, it was surprisingly arranged well by me all alone, without my family there to help me out. Ahem, I had a smug grin on my face and I patted myself - a job well done! :-)

So there I was on the Delhi bound Hyderabad flight. All the last minute calling up relatives and friends was duly completed while waiting at the airport - so much so that my cellphone battery started giving signs of fatigue. I knew it had a few mins of energy left, so I saved the rest for the last and finished all calls by the time I boarded the jet at 2 am at Delhi.

Mumbai aiport in July 1st week was hell! It was a crazy downpour again (that's become a norm every year now) and so flights were getting delayed and cancelled. That ensured that my travel plans were changed to 'via-Delhi' instead of 'via-Mumbai', and there went the chance to meet any my family at the Mumbai airport.

Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.
Between 11 pm to 3 am this place is a hogwash! A fish market! A place worse than Churchgate station at peak hours! I mean, there were to be thousands of passengers taking hundereds of outbound flights to godforsaken places, and thousands more to see-off these passengers. Add to them the multitude of airport staff, immigration officials, airline staff - u name it! Total chaos all around. A first time traveller can feel totally lost here. In a way this works good for passengers - it makes you go through the check-in and immigration in a jiffy (apart from the wait in the queue) simply because the officials have loads of passengers to clear in a matter of few hours.

To add to the confusion - I was flying Swiss Air (at least thats what my Travel Desk promised, and I could see it on my itinerary and ticket too). But to my suprise, my flight to Zurich was gonna be Air Canada, and then it would be some small-time airline - Cirrus. Nowhere was the name Swiss - just that my tour happened to be connected through Switzerland! The travel agents sure are capable of juggling their hapless passengers around!

The beginning of the flight seemed pathetic, sitting alone on the twin seat. How long could one survive boredom by listening to crap opera songs on the audio channel and flipping pages of 'Cosmopolitan' in French? After a few hours of forced sleep and gorgings on assorted snacks and a glass of Tropicana... the feeling was all numb! The flight was hardly 50% occupied. There was this middle aged Sardaarji on my right - who was luckily the lone guy in a 3-seater, so he stretched out and treated himself to a few hours of blissful sleep. Bored with the magazine I was reading, I looked around...., saw a few more Sikhs on the flight. Proof enough that the flight was headed to Canada! :-)

8 hours later, the flight landed in the Swiss city of Zurich.
If one word is used to describe Zurich Airport, its 'Classy'!. I mean it was my first trip abroad and I was not subjected to an array of airdromes to proudly make this comparison, but I'd heard a lot about these places - praises about Frankfurt, cribs about Charles-de-Gaulle, fascinations about Heathrow... to name a few, and this seemed one of the best!

Conversation with the German gal
It was a 3 hour wait at the airport and it was nice as I spent some time strolling around the gigantic place. While waiting at the lobby, I entered into conversation with a pretty lass sitting on my left. Seemed she too was waiting for the same flight, but I was wrong - which I realized after her revelation. But the most interesting part of the talk was the prelude to it...

"Are you waiting for the Frankfurt flight?", she asked innocently.
"Hmm, actually I'm waiting for the one to Stuttgart." (shucks, couldn't I say something more interesting? That I was Tom Cruise in disguise, and I was shooting for MI4 at Zurich Airport!)
"Oh, well, I think that one's 20 minutes after mine", she replied. "By the way, I'm, Sandra. Sandra Mueller."
"Oh, interesting name! Never heard of someone being called 'Sandra Sandra Mueller'!" (I kicked myself, what stupid sense of humor!!) "My name's Kumar....", I said, stretching out for a handshake.

Surprisingly that comment made Sandra laugh out loud and I knew I was spared... ha ha! That was enough to start up a conversation. She was a student, graduating in arts - history to be precise, and we had an interesting discussion about life in general in Europe, about the liberal arts (me hardly well-informed in this...), and the places to see in Germany! (there are indeed lots of great places around Stuttgart worth visiting - lakes, castles, rivers, forests.... you name it)

Only regret? Me did not take her contacts before bidding adieau (I realized that some time later). And it was not exactly because she was damn attractive, but because she was among the rare Germans who spoke good English. I would soon learn it the hard way in Stuttgart - finding a localite speaking good English is as rare as finding an honest auto-rickshaw driver in Chennai!

Interesting places in the Airport

Camel Smoking Lounge. (notice the tagline 'Tobacco Seriously Damanges Health' below the name on the board. Good na!)

Swiss Watches Showroom. Awesome collection of the originals - all the best brands.

As my flight for Stuttgart took-off, the Zurich skyline became clearer. Switzerland seemed all the more beautiful from the sky, and I finally realized what's there with this country that's so attractive and so pleasing to the eyes, especially to our Bollywood directors. By far its one of the most beautiful places on earth! Plans to visit the Swiss Alps are on the cards, so we would surely be having a trip to heaven sooner than later.

Within 20 mins the small aircraft landed at Stuttgart and I was soon filled by the fever of football! It was 9th of July, the day when Italy and France met in the finals of the World Cup.
Jet Lag? What's that....? :-)

Stuttgart is a beautiful city - surrounded by mountains and very green. It felt goooood! :-)

Next post: World Cup finals day! 9 July 2006.

Independence Day

2006-08-15T13:55:00.000+02:00

Just back from Independence Day Celebrations.

Actually this was just a gathering in our client office, where we guys sang the national anthem, greeted each other and saw a video which had A R Rehman, the Mangeshkars and all the whos-who of Indian music were together. Very mechanical way of ushering in the new Independent Year but thats the best we could do...

There is something planned by Desis in Stuttgart over the weekend. Hmm, lets see how that shapes up.

I miss my India. More so today....

Othello revisited...

2006-08-14T12:24:00.000+02:00

Watched Omkara this weekend. What a movie! Well the rented DVD from the Indian store was a makeshift alternative to watching it on the big-screen, but it was worth it.

I've become a fan of Vishal Bhardwaj. This guy is a genuis. I loved the music in Maachis, loved the way Maqbool was created, but this one surely takes the cake. Its ok with the expletives and all - thats part of hardcore UP lingo. This guy humbly acknowledges the adaptation of Shakespeare, yet goes ahead and deviates the plot where he thinks best - one of them being Amelia killing Iago. Yess, Konkona does a great job here.

Saif rules! With his rustic UP dialect, his consistant limp and his sly grin through his yellow teeth that badly need toothpaste, he is devious, he's hateable, he's brilliant!

The songs penned by Gulzaar and composed by the maestro Vishal himself are haunting and pleasing at the same time. In spite of having the Monday morning blues I was happily humming the title number and thinking about Bips in the raunchy one - 'Beedi'.... Then I was in office again.

Shakespeare would've smiled... :-)

The Click-Happy Traveller - Part II

2006-08-11T21:26:00.000+02:00

I'd actually started writing this around a month back - before leaving India. I made a quick trip to Mumbai via Pune over the weekend - end of June. Downpour and all, it was fun - the travelling part of the journey (something rare considering that I was travelling alone) :

===========

The beautiful Lonavala valley never ceases to amaze me. As far as I can remember, they have remained the same, only giving some way to the recently built Mumbai-Pune expressway, but the beauty still is intact! My this trip to Mumbai happened at the lovely months of monsoon - thats when the valley is at its best. I stood up at the door of the sleeper compartment and breathed-in the weather. A feeling of A-ha, truly!

Lonavala Valley

The curvy Train

In the train I was treated to the companionship of an assorted mix of travellers. There was this struggling software guy who was still trying to get a foothold into a well-established IT services company. There was this middle-aged North-Indian, almost avuncular, but still unconvincing in his preachings (you know, the usual crap to youngsters about being something in life and bragging about their sons/daughters/relatives being in some sundry prestigious posts). There was a young guy in his 30s, seemingly clueless but uncannily observant of the happenings inside.

Light at the end of the tunnel :-)

But the most unforgettable part was a 2 feet tall hurricane, (actually a small kindergarten kid) who was hell-bent upon destroying my shirt and breaking my spectacles! (don't ask me why, I've got no clue) He was in no mood to listen to his mother's instructions/scoldings/shouts but it seemed he had arrived on earth with the sole aim of scandalizing an innocent, unsuspecting train-traveller. That just happened to be yours truly, shucks! (pls see picture below to see how a human-hurricane looks like)

After almost an hour of trying to escape his assaults, I decided to apply my challenged brain for a while. So there I myself became a small child with him, started playing and shouting and tugging at his shirt the same way as he was doing mine, but of course with much less aggression. The people around me thought I'd lost it, but it was fun. I mean, for once a while, its fun to forget that formal you and become the wild 5 year old!

Hurricanes come in small sizes? Here's one....

Seems with children you can't hope to apply your wits, but then you'd be amazed the way they manage to outwit you... Quite a paradox!

The Two-feet-monster (TFM) was quite an unexplainable creature. Here's why:

Disclaimer: I'm not exactly of the appearance that scares off innocent looking children... And I'm not the kind that mothers use as a weapon saying 'So jaa beta warna woh 6 feet lamba chasme waala ladka aa jaayega!'. In fact I love kids - only the harmless kind... But this kid WAS different. I'm being conservatively judging when I call the kiddo a hurricane!

Shabbily translated from English and sundry gobbleydock...

Me: @Q$#@%^@ Chhu mantarr (hideaously moving a magazine in front of my face and then removing it)
TFM: Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa NAAAAAAAAAAAA YIEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!
Me: Stop crying baccha, look here's a chocolate!
TFM: (Gleaming eyes and all) hmmmm.... (ha ha, I just hoodwinked this guy!)

And then I handed over the piece to him (first mistake)

TFM: (After having smoothly consumed the treat) YIEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! (for crying out loud...)
Me: totally perplexed... what the hell did i do wrong?

After some time TFM decided that no one was paying much attention to him and his mother was sitting and reading some crap housewife magazine, so he was quiet again. (but that was just the lull before the storm)

TFM's Mom: Oh he is missing his papa na... that's why he was crying...
Me: (big big 2nd mistake) So beta, tell me who do you like more? Papa or ma?

That did it! After my innocent and supposedly good-humored inquiry to the child, he started his howling session and did not stop for half an hour! TFM's mom looks at me with a glare that would kill, half-accusing me of creating a rift between her and her husband... and half-blaming me of disturbing the 'shaaant' child...

Me: Sorry aunty, I was just trying to....
TFM's mom: Grrrrrr....!!

Ok, but this misadventure apart, the trip was largely nice and giving nostalgic feelings at times while passing thru the Pune route, the Lonavla valley and then back to Mumbai, the familiar crowded surroundings, the Mumbai air which I had got used to quite some time back.

Mulund Skyline

Back in Mumbai, its notable how Mulund, a quiet shy suburb has transformed itself. But inspite of giving way to swanky malls (Nirmal Lifestyle and R-Mall) and sky-kissing apartments, it has retained its green demenour. The horizon displays beautiful mountains which are always dipped in clowds during monsoon. There are some odd factories around a few of which have already closed down - and given way to newer construction projects... The good part is - the environment is being given due attention as well. I like that.

Next post.... about life in Deutscheland.

Duetschelanded !

2006-08-05T14:45:00.000+02:00

Funny how things seem fine once you get one small thing that you wanted....
But then after that you seem to wonder... what next?

My recent disappearance from blogging was due to my travel plans. Me landed in Germany almost a month back and blame it on the new country and the poor amazed me trying to come to terms with it, have been absent from this web-page.

And now that I did reach here, on the day of the World cup finals, I might as well take my words back in the crib that I'd posted:
http://kumar-palan.blogspot.com/2006/06/god-is-soccer-player.html

A good Boss

2006-06-28T14:20:00.000+02:00

Got this as a forward SMS:

Having a good boss is like wearing a good quality CONDOM.
It gives one a feeling of faith, confidence and security, EVEN while getting fucked.... !!!

:-)

A job to do, a job to hate...

2006-06-22T15:04:00.000+02:00

"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There is a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar."
~ Drew Carey in Dirty Jokes and Beer

Wouldn't say anything else. More for later....
Current mood: Disillusioned...., but unruffled.

The Itch

2006-06-14T16:18:00.000+02:00

Ever had a bad itch? A really compelling, irritating urge to do something? And if not able to do that, ever felt like strangling the one responsible for that till he chokes and then you get your heart's content?

It was 0120 hrs on 14th June (today). I was well into the Brazil match - totally absorbed, and totally oblivious of the fact that I had to go to a place called office on the same morning. At half time I was smug enough having seen a brilliant goal by Kaka shattering the nets from a distance, and then I was looking forward for some more treat for the next 45 odd mins....

Thats when the cable conked off!

Thats when I felt like murdering my cable waala guy.

I mean I've had long fights with him for the pathetic bouquet of channels that he throws in - half of them are some obscure regional shit and the 20% of the remaining ones are actually watchable, if you are lucky to have good transmission that day... But this was the limit!

I was sitting and waiting for the cable to come back as the clock ticked, well into the 2nd half. I got anxious, jittery but the blank screen didn't change.
This is one of those feelings that you get when you are desperately urging to answer Nature's big call and the only loo available is occupied by a guy who seems to be shitting out the whole weeks load, literally!
Thats the itch I was talking about...

But couldn't do much about it though - it was well into 90 mins by then... :-|
So there I cribbed and prayed that the subsequent days would be luckier and I slept.

An overdose of Soccer... I'm not complaining!

2006-06-12T07:52:00.000+02:00

What a weekend!
For the past 50 odd hours, its been football and only football! (except of course the occasional movie on TV - this time a shitty flop Hindi flick too 'cos the VCD rental guy didnt have anything better)
The first few matches have been good, and exciting. The new stricter rules enforced by FIFA ensuring that there are lesser challenging tackles and more of skill and pace ruling the game. This means that fans like me would be treated to some amazing soccer and the Gods would go ahead and entertain, without having to worry that the next defender would jump on him like a savage and end his world-cup dreams with an injury.

This would automatically mean, more goals! :-) And only few things in life can surpass this kind of visual treat!
(Not exactly reiterating my whacky Finance Prof's favourite dialogue: "Hey did you try that Mexican Pizza at the new joint in Juhu? Its better than SEX!", but thats exactly the point)

Waiting to see Brazil next, but the charged me really wants them to be humbled - just for once. They are a overhyped and aeging team, but nevertheless with the best individual talent in the world.
Play on....

God is a Soccer player

2006-06-09T08:18:00.000+02:00

Its time!
Its time for all soccer crazy folks in the world to get glued to one big extravagenza!

Though its a pity I'll be sitting here in my home in Hyd catching up on the excitement on television. The glimmer of hope that I could have travelled there on a business trip was too much to materialize, I guess. That was a chance of a lifetime.... and it didnt happen, well almost.

But alls fine as long as I get to watch my fav team England rooting it out on the field, as long as I can see the Brazilian brilliance scaring the shit out of the opposition, as long as 'Total Football' from the Dutchman entertains and excites, as long as the Argentinians demonstrate their classic tactics on the game!

Soccer is more than a game, its a religion.....
Yes, God is a soccer player. And for the next 30 odd days, God would take many forms and pay a visit to my home through my television. Some days he will be the brilliant Ronaldinho baffling the defenders, and some days he will be the 20 yr old raging bull called Wayne Rooney, and of course he would be the classic warhorse named Luis Figo and not to leave out the mercurial Arjen Robben pacing away to the goal!

This world cup - I'm waiting for the time of my life! Well, the best till date, you could say!

Joga Bonito!
.

Taking Stock

2006-05-31T17:08:00.000+02:00

Ya that much awaited correction finally happened. Its been a carnage of sorts! And me, much like the many hopeful investors have been stuck with many good quality stocks, yet more than 20% down from their purchase prices. This mayhem has spared none. I mean, the sentiment is that bad - it seems every stock in the arena has been put on the 'SELL' counter. No buyers anywhere... :-(

Now I always thought stocks to be a hit-miss game. I mean, the story of a monkey throwing darts on the stock exchange page of a newspaper, to select the companies to buy, and coming out a winner is too well known to be recited. But as the concepts of Finance and economics trickled into my challenged brain, it started making sense. It started getting clear why some scripts went up and some went down, without actually having to play a poker strike on them. Fundamental analysis, technical analysis - all that started falling in place.

But the end result is - I'm still in medium losses, same as the gujju businessman in Mumbai who has no idea about the inherent strength of stocks yet buys-sells at the advise of his broker (and still thinks he's done a brilliant job)!

Mark Twain said it right: (rephrasing 'cos I don't know the exact words of course!)
'For every trade that happens on the Exchange, there is a BUYER and there is a SELLER. The funny thing is - both think that they have made a good deal!'

Of course there is more logic to this, but this just drives home the point!

But its about money, honey! Its about greed!
Thats the reason why we watch those shows on CNBC everytime (Udayan Mukherjee is a DUDE!), thats why a line of charts hypnotizes us, that's why a market crash gives us withdrawal symptoms, and still inspite of that, we remain hopeful... :-)

...till the next big rally....

We don't need no Reservations! - Part II

2006-05-30T10:17:00.000+02:00

As I write this, the reservation stir has gained momentum. Though I'm not sure how correct the medico strikes are (causing inconvenience to so many wanting patients), its really heartening to see this spreading as a mass movement.

At the silent protest march from our office campus, my colleague (and junior from college), Sriram held the roost. Kudos to him for taking up such a cause and leading by initiative. His POV was covered by major news channels that day, and also attained mention in the Times. The picture shows Sriram holding up the placard.

We don't need no Reservations!

2006-05-26T14:58:00.000+02:00

Yes we've heard a lot of stuff about the anti-reservation thing, so I'll keep this very short.

We've seen so many things about protesters getting lathi-charged, rumors of an AIIMS medico dying and media not covering it, and SMSs, mails, petitions flowing everywhere..... with the media lapping it up.. (doing a good job of spreading the agenda too, thankfully)
Arjun Singh has really become the most hated person by most Indians below 30 years.

There are jokes flying around about Manmohan Singh sending a team of Indians to the moon, which has a horde of reserved category people and 'probably' one astronaut.
There are T-shirts and banners with different slogans.
One goes: 'I am leaving for the US. I was disowned by my own country'.
Another: 'If you are asleep, wake up. If you are dead, become a politician'.

There is a surprising amount of resentment in the voice of the youngsters who appear on TV speaking against reservations. There is this latent mass-anger which is waiting to erupt. Maybe some of it comes from within, some of it comes on borrowed emotions (of manufactured protests), some due to the recent Rang-De-Basanti hangover... But the point is - there is genuine and collective rage against this animal called Reservation all across the youth of India. And that is good.

There is this small bit of Anti-Reservation-ism within each one of us. Some proactively go ahead and demonstrate something, while most of the others (would include me) just sit back and discuss how bad it is for the country and then its back to our Projects @ Office.

Just today we tried doing our little bit though. Many of the folks in our company celebrated 'Black Day' today. So Black clothes it was, and black wrist-bands - all to show that we were together for the cause. So what if we had already passed out of the reservation imbroglio a few years back and now conveniently enjoying our salaries.

There was this silent protest march arranged outside our campus in the evening. As luck would have it, I had my 'onsite call' at that time and couldn't attend. Funny how some things like work pressures can always drive us away from some other priorities in life!

Will India progress as well if we have the Quota system implemented? I'm sure we all have our reservations.....

The Click-happy traveller

2006-05-18T12:24:00.000+02:00

Not that I've been a great globetrotter of sorts, but I've been in quite a few cities in India to confidently say I'm well-travelled.
Now that claim is a real paradox in itself, b'cos 'well'-travelled actually means long hours spent in stuffy hot sleeper compartments, uncomfortable bus journeys and unending waits at bus-stations and railway-stations to top up with. Still its not been such a bad experience after all.

Was in Mumbai last weekend on my way to Hyderabad - Mumbai, the place where I survived my 3 prime years! I reached Borivali bang early in the morning at 4 and wondered why we did have mornings at all...

Borivali Stn at 4:15 AM

So there I cursed the railways for being on time, gathered my super-light luggage and got down sleepy eyed on the platform. That was when nostalgia took over. These very platforms were my arena, some 15 months back. A prized seat in the 8:25 AM Churchgate local was some feat which I achieved almost every weekday without fail. And the sweaty 1 hr ride was heavily punctuated with brief naps, newspaper readings and boisterous discussions with fellow travellers.
Digresssion: The assorted mix of fellow passengers was really something to write about. Our daily group included a DGM in a top paints company, a practice manager in the top recruitment consultancy, an AVP Finance in an FMCG major, a fresh management trainee, a full-time Equity Analyst, an ad-professional etc and a few others. Such a diversified crowd, and many of them so well-set that they could've afforded a C class luxury car. Yet there was one common denominator that bound us all - the overstuffed 1st Class compartment in the 8:25 Churchgate Local. The discussions we had ranged from Stocks, politics, recent news, cricket, scandals, and occasionally even the anatomy of the latest item gals! Funny how this behaved as an extended family, or extended buddies group for the 1 hr journey every week day!

The local train compartment at 4:50 AM (you should see the rush in the 8:25 local)

Glad that I moved out of Mumbai and bid adieu to the local train nightmares. But those were some days....

Recently I just got upgraded! That means, off late I've started travelling by air too and Air Dhakkan has really got me frustated quite a times.
(Going back to my current story now) So having landed at the Borivali station, I took up a local half an hour later to Vile Parle. (This station too remains fondly in my memories having been the landing point for my college in Juhu). From Vile Parle it was a quick rick-ride to the Mumbai domestic airport.

Having reached there a good 2 hours early I decided to doze off in the comfortable seats - much better in contrast to the butt-crushing wooden planks at the railway platform.

The airport at 5 AM

The Airport at 7 AM

I was welcomed by a large, cozy, sparsely populated lobby in the beginnning. As the crowd grew, the Airport lobby started resembling no less than Dadar Station at peak office hours! There were queues everywhere, with Spice Jet and Air Dhakkan taking the cake. There were people were banging into each other's luggages, pushing within queues, small kids crying aloud and airline officials frantically trying to locate missing passengers. All in all, a very chaotic affair but entertaining too :-). I was pleasantly surprised by the new-look Airport, but the crowd really was something to watch out for.

The Airport Lobby at 7 AM on a Monday Morning. Dadar Station has huge competition!

Then, landing at Hyderabad around 10, I reached home and within some time I was ready to go pay a visit to my 5-day jail - The OFFICE !

Weekends

2006-02-17T16:32:00.000+01:00

Its Friday evening and me logging off..... My fingers are all tired from the constant jabbering on the keyboard, my eyes are reddish and my back pains more than my sore butt... Blame it on the long hours spent on the work-desk.

'The key to happiness in life is to make both week-ends meet...'

What d'ya think of that ;-)

Mind your language

2006-02-03T15:28:00.000+01:00

I'm frustated.
The amazing diversity of languages, cultures and behaviours of the people of India never fails to fascinate me. But more often than not, its the very diversity that frustates me too.

I'm in Hyderabad, a place which is considered somewhat milder compared to the extreme images of xenophobia that we have in our minds regarding the 4 southern states. I mean, this is where you could expect some bit of Hindi to be recognized and spoken to you, leave alone English.

I've had fights with my Cable-guy who fails to understand the meaning of the phrase 'Please come once to my place and reinstall the cable connnection' - even after being spoken in Hindi, English, Hinglish and sign language.

The same is the case with my poor maid servant who has difficulty comprehending my intented speak, and is working only because her daughter knows a wee bit of Hindi.

Gawd, in this age of globalization, (and India Shining), we still have a big portion of population that does not understand our national language. Take Gujarat, take Maharashtra, or even West Bengal for that matter - even the most illiterate of vernacular speaking folks there manage to communicate some bit in Hindi. Isn't that some pointer for the 4 southern states?

And till that happens, we will still keep calling all Southies as Madraasis and everything above A.P. and Karnataka as North India.

Laziness......

2006-02-02T14:16:00.000+01:00

Ok, so its easy to blame your unending laziness for not being a regular blogger...., but habits do die hard...
Anyways, with some sundry complaints coming in from a few folks on me not having updated my blog, here's an assurance - 'Will be back soon, fellas!'

Till then...

Bangalore Flooded !

2005-10-25T16:37:00.000+02:00

Its 2 days since Bangalore has been paralyzed. Heavy floods, and that too in spite of the city being 900 mts above sea level!

I'm the lucky one, having my safe abode in the campus Guest House (kudos to my employer!) But pity those poor souls who are sitting there in the buses for hours to reach their destinations. Some buses reached after a mind-boggling 5 hours of expeditions through potholes, side-roads, bypasses, kaccha roads and countless other obstacles.

Hosur Road is in a total disaster, partly thanks to the Karnataka government. And, more rain is forecasted tomorrow! Gawd !!

Daily cribbings apart..... I badly wanna go home for Diwali, but.........

In Office at 8 pm on a Friday Evening.....

2005-09-30T17:03:00.000+02:00

Whats like a work-week, I asked.
"A 5 day ordeal, a 2 day siesta!"

And whats like life, I thought.
Its something still worth figuring out...
Creatively juxtaposed between joy... and sorrow,
Life goes on....
Smooth....
(or so I wish!)

Its Friday evening, my wristwatch saying its way past 8 pm, and I'm still in OFFICE...... (frantically trying to finish off the pending tasks and simultaneously post some nonsensical lines of poetry on my Blog!)

Tomorrow is the day of my return pilgrimage to Bangalore, so adeiu Hyderabad !!

Hyderabad Blues..... and Greens!

2005-09-06T16:41:00.000+02:00

So I got deported to the Nizam city for a few weeks - courtesy, the highly unpredictable
business decisions of my esteemed employer...

Yesterday early in the morning, I managed to land at the huge railway junction called
Secunderabd (Hyderabad's lesser known twin-city) and the day begain in a quite predictable fashion (read: the usual jhakjhak with with the auto-wala on overcharging and the likes, with the choiciest of Hindi slang that one could imagine...)

Can't help but talk this way with these looters - or else they can run amok on the
unsuspecting first time visitor to any city.

So after a great start to a fine morning in Andhra land, I manage to reach my abode, perform
a hastened sequence of the morning neccessities and was out for office in 30 mins flat! Did
manage to reach the place on time, only to learn that the session was postponed by half an
hour! What great incidents to start off an already hurried morning....

The next few hours were largely uneventful - as I was attending a training in a conference
room. At regular intervals during the lecture I managed to doze off for moments, only to
regain my self - reminding myself: "Hey, I've come all this way to Hyderabad to learn
something, and NOT TO SLEEP OFF!!"

Well that worked... and so the day ended.. Also caught up with a lot of friends, colleagues,
college-mates - Haresh, Aparna et al. Over snacks and tea caught up on a lot of things... laughing and remembering the other fellas of the group. (yet to meet all of the guys here in town)

In the next 1-2 weeks, looking forward to seeing Ramoji Film City which we unfortunately
skipped during our last stop-over in the city. Also planning to watch Salaam Namaste 'priety' soon ;-)
But as they say... the best laid plans....

Men vs Women - the perennial battle

2005-08-20T15:20:00.000+02:00

Now there was this interesting thread of discussions on our company online bulletin board.

It started off with a guy called Priyank Gupta delivering a smashing piece of rhyme, that sparked off quite a few comments - both sexist and non-sexist! :-)

Here goes... (btw, the email thread in question ran from bottom to top, as usual, but for convenience (and commentry's) sake, I've reversed it for good)

The initiator

He didn't like the casserole
And he didn't like my cake.
My biscuits were too hard...
Not like his mother used to make.

I didn't perk the coffee right
He didn't like the stew,
I didn't mend his socks
The way his mother used to do.

I pondered for an answer
I was looking for a clue.
Then I turned around and smacked him...
Like his Mother used to do.

~Women

The Retort

She wasn’t all that funny
And really too dumb to see
All she wanted was my money
Not what I thought she’d be

She was bad with cooking
And couldn’t even count to three
Messed up, when I wasn’t looking
Not like I thought she’d be

I was looking for a way out
Or to make her smart and clever
But when realized, what women is about
I just got rid of her, ever and FOREVER!!

~Men

======================

To this, the reply was posted thus, by - who else, Yours Truly :-)

The Comment

They don’t agree on matters
Married, they wanna be now free
Point out flaws galore..
They just agree to disagree

She must be like mom, he says
Who cares about my in-laws?
Always oh so demanding
But hardly sees his own flaws…

She threatens to part ways,
At the slightest whim
Can’t live with him,
Can’t live without ‘im!

He is oh so insensitive!
She makes a lot of fuss
Time they realized
Men are from Mars, they from Venus…

And its gotta ppl write on the BB
For great relationship’s sake
Where’s the ideal couple gone?
O Cupid, didya make a mistake?

==========================

Now one Mr. Rohit Dwivedi couldn't resist putting his ideas to good use and came up with this version of slapstick poetry:

The fight has been relentless The brawl hasn’t been nice
Here are few more liners, to put in some more spice
No matter how gracious you get she refrains to break the ice
now when it comes to judgment she wants to throw a dice

Grand have been those men who have fallen for the flue
Grand have been there plummet who have had a few
For behind every success there has been a lady
For behind every failure there have been TWO…………!!!

~Men

Now this gave rise to a huge thread of sarcastic, insulting, funny, light, condescending and witty comments from all and sundry - with both sexes jumping in with their 2 cents on a very hot topic - MEN, & WOMEN!

Finally, our original poet Mr. Priyank Gupta finished it off with another witty one: (kudos to his creativity hah!)

If he is the protocol and he is the packet,
she is the virus, which causes the racket
flowing through streams, he leads graceful life
while she attaches herself; as his so called wife.

if he is the application, which longs to serve
she is the BUG, which has got the nerve
bringing him down crashing when needed most
not only embarrass, but also upset the host

if he is the hardware, and he is a switch
she is his weakness and she is the glitch
not matter how he plays and how he pitch
she gives it all away because she is the hitch

and if he is the one, who invented all these
won't you tell me, what took so long? Please!
Oh! but, it's not even a matter of perspective and view
because whole community of men understand, he was married too!!

And yet, if there is no virus and there was no glitch
and there was no Bug, and there was no hitch.
how will he improve, in his "nevretheless-doomed" life
and that is why lovely people, God made her as a wife!!

[though i am not sure if god is proud of it or not!?? :-) ]

Rohit had 2 more lines to add (probably the pride of having the last word!)

Silent have been thy critic, ………….Silent have been thy foes
when men have said something…….. they run ..but cannot find their toes
~Men

Still he was not finished - and rounded this up with:

They keep on quoting something
They keep on staying hushed
They don’t know where they are going
They aren’t even blushed…
~Men

Mangal Mangal !!

2005-08-16T15:45:00.000+02:00

So we decided to watch Mangal Pandey, The Rising on this 15th August and made advance arrangements (read, bookings) to this plan.

On D-Day, as I was stuck up in the office campus (a good 15 km away from the main city) the company bus was the only option to travel to the destination. I sat in the 5:25 bus, profusely praying that I could reach in time for the 6:30 show, hoping that God, the company bus, and the scant Sunday traffic of Bangalore (not necesarily in that order) would be kind on me and ensure I was not late. Huh.. talk of wishful thinking...

My mind kept hurriedly pondering on Just-in-Time methods of Toyota Corp.

Murphy's law: No matter how much efforts you waste on JIT, you'll turn up late 97% of the times.
Corollary: Even if you don't do JIT and start well in advance, you will STILL turn up late.

But I am digressing, this was supposed to be my few cents on the hype over Mangal Pandey.

Did I enjoy it? Yes and no.
In fact I actually convinced myself it was a good movie after spending 250 bucks (travel included) on it.

Here goes:

Agreed Aamir is a perfectionist, but lets be realistic, he doesn't really come across as the magnificent screen persona that could do justice to the hype built across the film. His jet-black moustache, long mane and a built up body, do play a part in showing him as the macho Pandey, but he really lacks that height, that voice, to come across as the one man who (arguably) incited the whole nation to the 1st Freedom Struggle!

Hmm, so Aamir falls 'short' of delivering the hype... (pun very much intended!)

As for the others,

The firang guy Toby Stephens is too good. Loved him!
Rani showed exuberance, but a confused character.
And what to say about Ms. Amisha Patel. A quick piece of portrayal - imagine yourself in the best of moods, walking by and you accidently step upon a huge mound of fresh cow-dung - capture the look on your face at that very moment - YES, thats the expression this lady has THROUGHOUT the movie. :-
Om Puri as the unseen narrator is WORLD CLASS! Now thats what I call a voice that commands immediate respect and admiration.

I was disappointed by A R Rehman, but the classy rendetion of Mangal Mangal by Kailash Kher (Allah ke Bande) is a masterpiece! It soothes, it haunts, it heartens, it brings goosebumps….

The story has lots of inconsistencies, but would give it to Ketan Mehta for coming out with a damn good try as this. Its not another Lagaan, cos it was never meant to be one! Though the editing is not slick, the scenes are admittedly well shot, and the look-and -feel of 19th century rural India is excellently depicted.

So what if I left the screen with a funny feeling and a confusion over the abrupt ending, I still was happy having images of 1857 &-the-works in my mind - and the feeling of a 15th August evening well-spent. :-)

The movie-buff in me says its an ok-ish film. The MBA in me says its a huge risk (in spite of huge opening collections) because it might not even allow Mr. Mehta recover his over-ambitious investments (read Rs.40 Cr.)!

Mumbai devasted? Not yet

2005-08-05T15:09:00.000+02:00

26 July, 2005
Unprecendented rains play havoc in Mumbai!

Ok, if that doesn't give the shivers, here's some trivia to put the point across:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Average rainfall in Mumbai - 150 mm
Drainage system in mumbai designed for handling rains upto - 350 mm
Highest rain received at Cherrapunji - around 850 mm
Mumbai that day (26 July) - 944 mm !!!
----------------------------------------------------------------

Looking at these figures probably gives an idea of the wide-spread havoc this rain could very easily cause... and sadly.... it did.

~Western Express Highway....

That my uncle was stranded on his way home and didn't reach home till 40 hours; that my cousin held up at his friend's place for 2 days... are just few of the mild stories among the numerous horrifying experiences that the city faced.

~A road that became a raging river

~People returning back from their offices

Flashback:

Just a month ago, I started out for hometown Baroda. The whole of Gujarat was under the floods those few days, and hope being alive, I thought I should pass.... but was I wrong... Finally, I had to cut short my pilgrimage and return back to Bangalore after spending a day in Mumbai. Little had I known that this very place would be a victim of a deluge of much larger magnitude!

The weekend that came by, I spent almost whole of my time glued to the idiot box. The only buttons that I kept moving my fingers in my channel-surfing sequence were the news channels.
There was Star News showing me live pictures of Mumbaites fighting it out in the oceans of water; There was Aaj Tak in its usual sensationalizing tones - showing me scenes of the railway stations and angry/sad/weary commuters; There was this young reporter on NDTV reporting live from the airport, telling me what I already knew since night last - that the runway was totally flooded and shut-off.
The most ironical was the report about the phone-lines and mobile services going phut - and right after that I see a commercial of the ubiquitous Hutch pug telling me that where I'd go, their network would follow....

Giving hope a chance, I'd tried calling my cousins on the 26th and 27th, but these calls never got connected...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Something about Panvel town:
Panvel is the last suburbial town of Mumbai on the harbour line - located in quiet district of Raigadh. I have fond memories of that place having spent good times (albiet only a couple of times) with my Masi's family there. A special treat is being with my tiny cousins Jhalak and Dhristi :-)

Ok, avoiding digression - here's what happened in this sleepy town on the 26th:
My masi lives on the 1st floor and the water had reached to just 3 steps to her door! Imagine the plight of the ground-floor residents, who had no option but abandon everything and rush up to the higher floors. The lights had already conked off across the town by then. The whole town spent 4 days without electricity, drinking water and fresh food - with people hostages in their very homes....

~Panvel town under water

And all this is just second-hand information.... Can't imagine what the guys out there were feeling like...

Just to put things in perspective... Any city in the world would get paralyzed if it gets over 35 inches of rain in a day! But Mumbai fought it out, and would be back and running on its feet sooner than you can imagine... Think of it - Washington gets stranded on its feet and the people stuck in their homes, if it receives more than 4-5 inches of snow. And Gawd, here we are talking about 37 inches of rain! Thats the spirit of Mumbai...

Footnote:

An ode to Mumbai, my city for 2 and a half years

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down....

When you say nothing at all......

2005-07-05T09:19:00.000+02:00

"You say best, when you say nothing at all....."

Made most famous by Boy Band wonder Ronan Keating, this song is a treat to the ears. Specially so if you pay attention to the amazing lyrics it has got to offer. This features as an OST in the mushy flick Notting Hill - a nice one to watch.

Much as I hate typical boy-bands, Ronan Keating is one who actually pleases the discerning listener. I just love these lyrics....

TRIVIA:
It was originally released by a country/bluegrass artist called Keith Whitley, and then covered by Alison Krauss, and the AK version is far better than the Ronan Keating version, but the KW version is just wonderful. So, Ronan Keating's song is in fact a cover for a cover!

It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark
Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

All day long I can hear people talking out loud
But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd
Try as they may, they could never define
What's being said between your heart and mine

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

Moral: Never judge a song by its 'cover'
:-)

MUMBAI ahoy! - Far from the maddening crowd?

2005-06-24T07:38:00.000+02:00

My experiences as a helpless commuter in aamchi Mumbai.
For those who have been in this city for some time in their life, you'll know the perspective. :-)

Chuchgate Railway Station, Mumbai
Monday (yet another office-day) 8:50 AM

As I got down from the overstuffed compartment and set my feet on the Churchgate platform #2, there was a sense of exhilaration - mission accomplished (for the day)! I had successfully managed to board a 8:15 Churchgate fast from Andheri without getting my shirt and glasses too much out-of-place, and had managed to get down at my destination still in one piece – a rare feat indeed. Did someone say, practice makes a man perfect?

I look around, and i see another train coming into the adjoining platform. It stops and eeks out thousands of commuters from its 'belly' into the platform beside. This made the otherwise broad walk-way a real difficult stretch to pass.

And I walked.

Around me were faces - thousands, probably millions of them, walking in the same direction towards the exit, as expressionless as one could get - no different from robots, functionally programmed to go through this task on a daily basis. Each one eager to reach the target - the subway that would lead them out of this gigantic railway-station!

As everyday, I wished for some miracle that could get me 'Far from the Maddening Crowd'!

I remember my mother telling me years ago that I was 'one in a million'! Looking around the millions of 'robots' walking beside me, I do realize that she was right....
:-)

Food for thought !

2005-06-18T12:07:00.000+02:00

I've always been a food lover - a sucker for the culinary delights! Maybe an understatement, this, but describing me as: 'a gluttonous freak who loves to devour most things edible on earth' wouldn't be too far from the mark.

Ok, maybe not 'most things edible on earth' but you could easily term it as 'most vegetarian stuff edible on earth'. This wee bit of correction is due to my newly found love for the items of the herbivourous kind - seeking to abandon meat altogether in the new future. PETA must be happy! :-)

But somehow, living alone as a bachelor (or sharing acco with friends) and working long hours at 'office-sweet-office' ;-) inevitebly makes one indifferent to one's gastric temptations.

Either you tend to 'forget' about your eating cycles during your busy work-hours @ office, or you tend to conveniently ignore them b'cos of lack of good places around to eat. I mean, how many days can you live enjoying the 'Food Court' meals, which, otherwise, are not such a bad deal, if you look at from a hygiene and taste point of view!

Really miss those days back at home town Baroda, where mom's food was taken for granted and eating out meant simply callin up friends, kick-starting your bike, and riding down to the decided eating joint. Jalsa karo doston! Now we realize what we'd left behind.. sadly!

Bottomline, nowhere can you replace MOM'S food !

Sadly enough, my eating habits nowadays have been reduced to somewhat decent lunches at office and then some tit-bits when back at home for dinner, read: Maggi/instant-pasta/wheat- bread/milk/fruits conveniently juxtaposed with tomato-ketchup, chips and stuff. Not a very complete' meal this - and it doesnt take a Phd. in Food & Nutrition to figure out that.

The point is, I've still been surviving. And, surviving well!
My slowly increasing belly (read: healthiness, as in - khaate peete ghar ka ladka, he he) is proof to this. Oops, o that is again a result of loooooooong hours at my office-desk. Can't help it.

Time to take a break! Have to go for my next cup of tea. My dear office beverage machine,
here i come!

Next time around, about food in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai (!!), Kolkata and of course,
dear old Baroda.

Why we work on Saturdays?

2005-04-23T11:02:00.000+02:00

? ?

Considering this question in rhetoric it might be wise enough to ask one this.
Note: Yours truly is assuming innocently that the enlightened readers of this piece of prose are actually engaged in some form of employment!

Ok, coming to my question – I feel it suitable to ask this to myself now and again, especially that on a Saturday afternoon, I’m ‘busy’ in office, publishing this blog of mine. Problem is, ‘working’ on Saturdays is often confused with ‘coming to office’ on Saturdays. I mean, u might ‘come’ to office but not necessarily work.

What one does once in office is another question….

Well, for starters, it is very possible that the incumbent is a blighted young bachelor who has no home, no family to spend the time on a weekend and so he decides to spend (or, kill?) some quality time at office, where he has all the luxuries of the Air Conditioner, a lightening-speed internet connection and free access to the beverage vending machines!

This is the case with many a IT professionals throughout the annals of Bangalore and other cities with a similar ‘ecosystem’.

Phew!

But hey, there are times when I coming to office was necessitated by the demands of my ‘respect-worthy’ superior, who insisted on a sad Friday evening that I finish the allotted job by Monday. This killing proposition leaves me, an otherwise non-hostile creature, no other choice but to mouth a few silent expletives at BOSS and subsequently decide that Saturday too would be a working day…. :-(

Must not forget that there is a large no. of lesser mortals in India that works Saturdays too! And so I consider myself lucky and finally feel nice about my not-so-nice job which gives me an official 5 day work-week, Thank You !

God bless the Boss !

Gooooooooooogle (contd.)

2005-03-19T12:07:00.000+01:00

Here's another interesting article.....

About: Google's proposed dominance in e-marketplace (circa 2009)

http://www.ftrain.com/google_takes_all.html

Go rack your brains..... Let them loose..... Think of all the varied possibilities that technology can take you ! ( craziness being just one of them...)

Gooooooooooogle

2005-03-19T11:46:00.000+01:00

An interesting forward that I came accross.

For time-pass, try this link. And find the different Google logos from 1999 – 2005. Some are too good, though repeated over the years.
http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html

============================

And guys, how far do you trust Google Translation Service ?? :-)

Step 1: Go to http://www.google.com.my/language_tools?hl=en

Step 2: Enter the following line into the translate textbox:

Aishwarya's grand mom is nice and cool

Step 3: Translate from english to spanish.

Step 4: Copy the translated text, and translate it back from Spanish to English.

:-)

===========================

Assorted fact:

When Google was a Stanford research project, it was nicknamed BackRub because the technology checks backlinks to determine a site's importance

Coming up later.... Google still is the THE best thing to happen to the internet after...... well, IM ?

till then....

What's in a name?

2005-02-21T14:41:00.000+01:00

After having decided to put up a blog (and put an end to the misery of answering difficult questions as - "You like writing na? Why the hell you don't have a blog?") I've finally managed to post my happenings (and non-happenings) on this online medium which can reach accross to ... well, millions! (sigh... only if me were so famous)

To start of with, a very intimidating task was to come to an appropriate name for this creation of mine... Thank God it's not like naming your baby - where you can do it only ONCE! Here I have the privileges bestowed upon me to change the title as and when wanted.

But the question remains: "Why 'Comfortably Numb'? Of course its a tribute to probably the greatest band to happen to the planet, PINK FLOYD !!

Vaise, in Engg (and also in MBA) there was this saying goin on: To answer a question (posted by a frustated student) as: "How the hell did we manage to get into such a course?"
The befitting statement was: "Oh, it was a Momentary Lapse of Reason.... but now we are Comfortably Numb...." :-)

Floyd's great hits were just apt to describe our sorry state of affairs.... but hey, no one was complaining!

Well, could go on and on about Floyd but this post was not exactly meant for this sublime purpose. The purpose of this post is to give a start to my blogging habits, coin an apt title for my publishings (which's already been done) and to... well, put me in the 'elite' list of Bloggers....

Mantra for the next many sessions: "Write here, write now"

~~ Comfortably Numb ~~